The electronic era - Historical perspectives - Some preliminaries

How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

The electronic era
Historical perspectives
Some preliminaries

When many older scientists began their careers, they wrote their papers in pen or pencil and then typed them on a typewriter or had a secretary do so. They or a scientific illustrator drew graphs by hand. They or a scientific photographer took photographs on film. They then carefully packaged several copies of the manuscript and sent them via postal service to a journal. The journal then mailed copies to the referees (peer reviewers) for evaluation, and the referees mailed them back with comments. The editor then mailed a decision letter to the scientists. If the paper was accepted, the scientists made the needed revisions and mailed back a final version of the manuscript. A copy editor edited the paper by hand, and a compositor rekeyboarded the manuscript. Once the paper was typeset, a copy was mailed to the scientists, who checked for typographical errors and mailed back corrections. Before the paper was published, the scientists ordered reprints (freestanding printed copies) of the paper, largely for fellow scientists who lacked access to libraries containing the journal or who lacked access to a photocopier.

Today the process has changed greatly. Word processors, graphics programs, digital photography, and the internet have facilitated the preparation and dissemination of scientific papers. Journals throughout the world have online systems for manuscript submission and peer review. Editors and authors communicate electronically. Manuscript editors edit papers online, and authors receive typeset proofs of their papers electronically for inspection. Journals are available online as well as in print—and sometimes instead of in print; increasingly, accepted papers become available individually online before appearing in journal issues. At some journals, electronic extras, such as appendixes and video clips, supplement online papers. Many journals are openly accessible online, either starting at the time of publication or after a lag period. In addition, readers often can access papers through the authors’ websites or through resources at the authors’ institutions, or the readers can request electronic reprints. Some of the changes have increased the technical demands on authors, but overall, the changes have hastened and eased the publication process and improved service to readers.

Major trends in recent years have included the increasing use of preprint servers—in other words, openly accessible online repositories or archives to which authors post manuscripts before (or sometimes instead of) submitting them to peer-reviewed journals. In physics and related fields, researchers have long posted preprints to the open-access archive now called arXiv, which observed its 30th birthday in 2021 (Celebrating arXiv’s 30th Anniversary 2021). More recently, substantial numbers of researchers in biological fields have posted preprints, for example in bioRxiv (Kaiser 2017). The trend accelerated with the advent of COVID-19 and the impetus to share research about it quickly (Kupferschmidt 2020). Related developments have included the advent of overlay journals, which are compilations of preprints (and sometimes other online items) that, after peer review, been chosen for inclusion (Alves 2021).

Like circulating drafts to colleagues, posting manuscripts in preprint servers can aid in sharing information, obtaining feedback, and establishing priority. It does not, however, substitute for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or the equivalent. Fellow researchers, members of the public, and the media should be aware that items in preprint servers have not received the scrutiny of formal peer review.

Whereas much regarding the mechanics of publication has changed, much else has stayed the same. Items that persist include the basic structure of a scientific paper, the basic process by which scientific papers are accepted for publication, the basic ethical norms in scientific publication, and the basic features of good scientific prose. In particular, in many fields of science, the IMRAD structure for scientific papers remains dominant.